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Windows Server 2008 {launches today}

In a few hours time, I will be at the UK press launch for Microsoft’s 2008 Global Launch Wave – the launch of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

This is the biggest launch I’ve been involved in for a while (the last one I took part in was Exchange 4.0 Server in 1996) – although I did attend the Windows Server 2000 launch in London and the Windows XP launch in Sydney.

Although today is the global launch, as far as UK events go, today is a press event – the customer launch is on 19 March at the ICC in Birmingham. I’ll be there, on the Fujitsu stand, so come along and say hello if you get the chance. There will also be a sequence of regional launch events throughout April and May as well as a virtual launch website from 19 March until June.

The various UK user groups are also in the process of putting together two Community Days, hosted by Microsoft at their UK headquarters in Reading (Thames Valley Park). Details are yet to be finalised, so watch this space (or better still, check out the UK User Groups website, where pre-registration is available) and I’m hoping to get the chance to present at least one of the sessions, so if I’ve ever been the awkward one who asked too many questions in one of your presentations, now is the chance to get your own back…

[Coincidentally, this post marks another momentous occasion – it’s post number 1000 on this blog (although the count is not strictly accurate as there are still a few that are in draft state and haven’t actually made it to being published)]

@Andrew – as I understand it, SQL Server 2008 is still launching (from a marketing perspective) but the product will not be released to manufacturing until Q3. I guess you might call that smoke and mirrors, but it is also standard practice for launching new products (as far as I can tell).

I must confess that, from a personal perspective, SQL Server is not something that I follow (I’m more interested in the Windows Server element of the launch – and that product certainly is ready).

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